I think IoT devices would tend to mostly provide info that the owner would store and if they decide to upload it to a web page that would be separate. Even then it is stilll stored locally by the owner.

Interesting thought, I often used to think that millions of users downloading videos would cause that, much to my surprise I have better bandwidth now than when I first thought this. The billions of devices will likely have very low bandwidth requirements individually so what's worse? 1 billion devices at 1kbs against 100 million video downloaders at 10Mbps?

I actually think there will be many, many uses that no one has come close to thinking of yet. Some may sound pretty ridiculous at the moment, but their time will come.

In my opinion, one of the biggest problems to solve is to make the "IOT" portion of the thing completely invisible.

In my refrigerator scenario, I don't really want to know or care that it's connected. I just want the warning that few times it will be needed. If I put on a Fitbit exercise monitor, I don't really want to know or care that it's an IOT device. I just want it to help me train better.

When the fact that something is an IOT device is not discusses and not visiblt, then the IOT will be truly useful. In the end, I suspect that there are very few things that can't benefit in some ways shape or form, from being connected.

Hi Duane, I get your drift as we say downunder but I'm one of those people that goes through life subconciously confirming my actions. If I close the fridge door and that characteristic pft sound deosn't occur I subconciously turn to look why. car doors house doors etc are all the same to me.

Have you ever been walking and an object got in front of your leg and begun to tug and you don't realise it until you've tripped? Well I felt such a tug once and slammed on the brakes only to find it was a spider web. It didn't break :-)

But that said I have to agree most people out there simply aren't aware of their surroundings at all let alone a fridge door so maybe??

My daughter and Son-in-law bought a Samsung fridge that had a a full web connected PC with email, browser, music service, the works. I just had to shake my head. There's a permanent 2-5W 24hour a day 365 days a year, my old fridge now 30 years old only draws power when the thermostat engages (thermal pressure type). Obviously insulation has improved but I'd like to have that sort of thermostat in my new fridge, :-)

re: "I can't for the life of me figure out what I would want an internet connected fridge"

The hype ruins this one. When manufacturers or pundits talk of browsing from the refrigerator or notifying of milk freshness, they do everyone a disservice. Those are "features you can sell", not "features you can use."

I can see a few valuable uses though. Think of the warning lights in your car. You hope to never see your oil light come on, but if your oil gets too low, even one use of the indicator light during the life of the car makes it worth having.

An equivalent in a refrigerator (or freezer), as you suggested, would be a power off and temperature rising, or door open and temp rising indicator. I know people that have lost hundreds of dollars' worth of food from a partially opened door.

If I'm in bed, I may not know that the fridge door didn't close all the way. I may not find out until the morning when just about everything's gone bad. A quick text message to my phone would save my food.

The hype promoting useless applications will make it more difficult for legitimate applications to be adopted. Of course, the other problem is the setup. Unless it's "push one button" easy, most people won't bother to set it up.